Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, The Near East, South Asia, and Africa, Volume V

McGhee Files: Lot 53 D 468: General¹

Memorandum by Mr. Alton W. Hemba of the Bureau of Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs to the Director of the Office of African and Near Eastern Affairs (Berry)²

top secret

[Washington,] April 10, 1950.

Subject: Area Policy Papers

You will recall that in the Staff Meeting on Thursday, April 6, Mr. McGhee requested that meetings be held to block out area policy papers which are needed and to isolate critical situations which need priority handling.

The first meeting has been set for Wednesday, April 12 at 3:30 p. m. in Mr. McGhee’s office.³

It has been requested that you review the following documents prior to this meeting:

1. Memorandum of March 6, 1950 from NEA to S/P—Mr. Butler, subject “Inventory of Problems, Programs and Questions in the NEA Area Affecting National Security.⁴ (Previously distributed by Mr. Robertson)

2. Conference Document No. 13, “United States Policy toward Africa”.⁵ (Attached)

3. Area Policy Statement: South Asia.⁶ (Attached)

1. Lot 53 D 468 contains copies of memoranda and correspondence of Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs George C. McGhee for the years 1949–1951.
2. Also sent to John D. Jernegan, Director of the Office of Greek, Turkish and Iranian Affairs, Elbert G. Mathews, Director of the Office of South Asian Affairs, David A. Robertson, Politico-Military Adviser, Bureau of Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs, Arthur Z. Gardiner, Refugee Adviser, Department of State, and William W. Cleland, Intelligence Adviser, Bureau of Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs.
3. A memorandum prepared by Mary E. Hope of the Bureau of Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs, dated April 12 and entitled “NEA Meeting To Discuss Preparation of Regional Policy Statements”, notes, inter alia, that at the April 12 meeting it was “agreed that the following territorial units should be given regional treatment in policy statements”: Black Africa, the “general area south of the Sahara”; North Africa excluding Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan; Israel and the Arab states, including Egypt and the Sudan: Greece, Turkey, and Iran; and South Asia (India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Burma, and Afghanistan). Thereafter the statements were drafted and revised periodically. They were intended to record policy which was already formulated, as well as to raise policy questions on which a comprehensive position was needed. It is evident from Department of State files that a number of draft policy statements on each of the five regions were prepared during the course of 1950. For documentation, on those dealing with Africa, see pp. 1503 ff. Those dealing with South Asia, Greece, Turkey and Iran, and the Near East, printed infra and pp. 254 and 271, are the only drafts of these statements for 1950 to have been found in Department of State files. Additional documentation on the preparation of these statements, including the memorandum prepared by Mrs. Hope on April 12, is contained in Department of State file 780.00/10–1750.
4. Supra.
5. Not printed; it is part of the Official Record of the West and East African Regional Conference of United States Diplomatic and Consular Officers held at Lourenço Marques, Mozambique, February 27–March 2, 1950, found in Department of State file 120.4353C/5–450.
6. Not found in Department of State files.